EU membership and UK Science

12 May 2016
The science and research community in the UK is one of the strongest in the world, even as it faces growing international competition since the 1970s. During that time, the UK has also been engaged in European integration. But is there a connection between EU membership and the performance of UK science and research?

The science and research community in the UK is one of the strongest in the world - and has been since well before the industrial revolution. Indeed, the UK has retained its global position in the face of growing international competition, not least from the Asia Pacific, since the 1970s. During that time, the UK has also been engaged in European integration.

But is there a connection between EU membership and the performance of UK science and research?

On 20 April 2016, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee published a report into the relationship between EU membership and the effectiveness of UK science. This report has unearthed a wealth of evidence on the nature and extent of UK-EU interactions in this sector, gathered from a spectrum of well-informed witnesses. Particularly salient given the approaching referendum on UK membership of the EU, it reinforces some elements of conventional wisdom and challenges others.

At this meeting, part of the UCL European Institute's Britain & Europe series, we shall hear contributions from experts in UK science and research to discuss the report and the implications of its findings.

Speakers

• Professor Graeme Reid (UCL and Advisor to the House of Lords inquiry)
• Emran Mian (Social Market Foundation and witness to the House of Lords inquiry)
• David Walker (witness to the House of Lords inquiry and formerly at the Academy of Social Sciences)
• Professor Alex Halliday (Royal Society)

Chair: Jackie Hunter (CEO of Stratified Medical Ltd and former CEO of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council)

About the Series

The electorate in Britain has become highly critical of the way the European Union operates. Since David Cameron called a referendum on the UK's continued membership of the EU following his renegotiation of the UK's relationship with the Union, public opinion - and thus campaigning - has hinged centrally on how the Union is judged to perform in certain policy areas. Yet what are the concrete facts underlying our often highly politicized perception of key policy areas? And what could a reform of these entail in real terms? Since autumn 2014, the UCL European Institute has hosted a series of policy panels with experts from academia, politics, law, and the media to explore these questions. It is also producing a set of accompanying resources and a blog - www.britain-europe.com - in order to inform public debate on the future relationship between Britain and Europe.